Entertainment

Butterflies are free again at The Stanley

Monday is release day for the homegrown pollinators

You can never have too many beautiful creatures. The Stanley Hotel and students from the Estes Park High School have partnered to help bring more beauty into the world, through the unique program, "The Butterfly Encounter."

Students raise the butterflies from chrysallis to maturity in the exhibit downstairs at The Stanley. Visitors can watch, for free, as the students lovingly tend the chrysallises and the butterflies emerge, to flit about a glassed-in area, full of colorful, tropical foliage and lush green plants, as well as cut up pieces of fresh fruit.

Then, every Monday throughout the summer, the students and their adviser, Melinda Merrill, TAG teacher at the high school, release the adult butterflies into the world of The Stanley sculpture garden, where they are free to pollinate lavender and white lilacs and other foliage, and visitors are free to capture the event with cameras and outstretched hands, on which the "domesticated" butterflies seem to take pleasure in alighting.

Merrill said they released 2,000 butterflies last year. They order about 200 chrysallises a week. The butterfly release takes place on Mondays at 4 p.m. at the sculpture garden at The Stanley, throughout the summer. Come and share some free beauty — and perhaps a butterfly "kiss."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.